


Won't you stay til the A.M

by bechloehuh, eliseboobman (bechloehuh)



Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Christmas, F/F, Fluff, merry pitchmas 2015
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 02:51:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5522684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bechloehuh/pseuds/bechloehuh, https://archiveofourown.org/users/bechloehuh/pseuds/eliseboobman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Bellas do Secret Santa.</p><p>For welshcakes68 for the 'Merry Pitchmas Gift Exchange 2015'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Won't you stay til the A.M

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WelshCakes68](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WelshCakes68/gifts).



" _Won’t you stay till the AM? / all my favourite conversations / always made in the AM, yeah / ‘cause we don’t know what we’re saying / we’re just swimming around in our glasses / and talking out of our asses / like we’re all gonna make it, yeah yeah / feels like this could be forever right now / don’t wanna sleep 'cause we’re dreaming out loud / trying to behave but you know we never learned how._ " one direction, a.m

Returning home from work to a house full of screaming Bellas isn’t exactly out of the ordinary for Beca Mitchell. It’s Christmas in two weeks, so it’s only normal for them all to be excited. However, when she hears the words “Look, you’ve upset Chloe now!” coming from what sounds like the Kitchen area, she suddenly doesn’t really care about anything to do with Christmas.

Not that she cared much anyway.

And as she guessed, the Bellas are all stood in the kitchen arguing about something, and Chloe is sat with her head in her hands at the kitchen table, and Beca just hopes to God she’s not crying because if Chloe is crying, all hell will break loose, and she will not be held responsible for what happens to whoever made her cry.

She ignores Fat Amy’s comments to Stacie about having a line of boys who are willing to give her plenty of packages for Christmas (and not of the festive kind) as she makes her way over to the table, sitting down next to Chloe and immediately putting a hand on the girl’s shoulder.

“Hey,” Beca says, her voice quiet due to not speaking all day (her boss is an expert at ignoring people, Beca gave up even trying to get his attention weeks ago.)

And okay, maybe she’s a hell of a lot more relieved than she’d admit when Chloe lifts her head up to show Beca that no, she’s not crying, and no, she’s not upset. She just looks extremely pissed off.

“What’s going on? It’s like that scene from Mean Girls in here. You know, the one where everyone starts attacking each other.”

(Beca also ignores the comment from Cynthia Rose about how she’s surprised she’s even seen that movie.

She doesn’t mention that she only watched it because Chloe made her.)

And so Chloe takes a deep breath, and she tells her that the reason the Bellas are all yelling at each other is because she thought it’d be a good idea to do Secret Santa this year, but every time someone picks a name out of the bowl, they find an excuse to put it back. (Excuses like ‘oh, but I’ve already bought this person a present’, or ‘this person has pretty much everything in the world, how am I ever going to think of a gift good enough for them’ or, if you’re Amy, ‘I have Lily and unless I can get away with buying two legit samurai swords or a homicide kit, I got nothing.’

(That one is understandable though, because she’s pretty sure Lily is not the type of person who would accept bath salts as a Christmas present as easily as the others.)

And that’s how Beca finds herself standing on one of the kitchen stools, with Chloe stood next to her making sure she doesn’t fall – it wouldn’t be the first time – as the Bellas stand in a single line, one Bella behind another, waiting for Beca to hand them each a piece of paper with a name on it.

It takes four tries before everybody is happy with who they’ve got.

At one point Stacie was ready to announce that she doesn’t want this person, but the look on Beca’s face soon shut her up.

It’s not until Beca gets out of the shower that night that she realizes she has no idea what to get the person she happened to choose. Obviously it’s Chloe, and obviously she was going to get Chloe a gift anyway, but now this just equals more pressure, because now everybody will be seeing what she gets her. She shouldn’t be worried though. Chloe is her best friend. She’s Chloe Beale, for God’s sake, somebody could get her a can of tomato soup and she’d be over the moon.

Only, Chloe’s present is the only thing that she thinks about for the next couple of weeks. It keeps her up at night, and for some reason, she only realizes that holy shit, she should really get Chloe something awesome, when it’s the day before Christmas Eve and she can hear the Bellas all talking about how excited they are to see their families for Christmas in a couple of days.

“Wait, when’s Christmas?” Beca asks all of the Bellas as they’re sat around the TV watching Elf. It’s at the part where Buddy and Jovie are on a date, and Beca can’t help but think of her and Chloe when she watches it. Of course, it’s only because Buddy reminds her so much of Chloe. So happy and excited all the time. She’s definitely Jovie in the relationship.

Not that they have a relationship.

Friendship, she means to say. Of course.

Anyway.

She’s too busy thinking about Chloe and their theoretical Buddy/Jovie relationship thing they have going on, that she completely forgets she had even asked a question. So when Fat Amy says, “Don’t hold me to this, but I think Christmas might be on the twenty-fifth of January” and all the Bellas laugh, she doesn’t really know what’s happening.

“You okay, Becs?” Chloe asks her, nudging her side. Not that she had to, really. Chloe’s practically sat on her lap.

She nods, and she tells Chloe that yeah, she’s just tired, and Chloe gives her that look as if to say “please don’t fall asleep during the movie again, you know I love this movie” and okay, she’s been trying extra hard not to fall asleep tonight.

So Christmas is officially in two days, and Beca is officially screwed, because she’s had two weeks to buy Chloe a gift for secret Santa, and she has absolutely nothing.

Best friend in the world award clearly goes to the one and only Beca Mitchell.

She completely misses the rest of the movie because she’s too busy thinking about how awful she is at this whole ‘friend’ thing.

It’s not until the next day that she gets a brilliant last minute idea, which she wishes she would’ve thought of earlier so she could actually prepare. But it’s 9AM on Christmas Eve morning, and it’s an idea, and Beca will happily – or begrudgingly, same thing – roll with it.

She has to think of an excuse to give Chloe when the girl asks her where the hell she’s going this early on a morning, especially on Christmas Eve, and she’s quite proud of herself when she immediately comes up with the excuse that that she’s going to visit her dad. The look on Chloe’s face – the one that tells her that she’s proud of her for working on rekindling their relationship – is enough to almost cease the guilty feeling in her stomach she always gets from lying to Chloe’s face.

Morning trips to Wal-Mart are never her favorite, so a morning trip to Wal-Mart on Christmas Eve is practically the worst thing in the world. But she does manage to get out of there in one piece two hours later, save for the bruise growing on her arm from when a middle-aged woman – probably a soccer mom, judging by the haircut – pushed her to the side in order to get to the last box of Froot Loops.

Beca wasn’t even gonna buy the Froot Loops, and she was the only one on the breakfast isle, so she’s starting to think that maybe the woman just had it out for her.

Luckily, Chloe is at Aubrey’s apartment when she gets back to the Bella house that afternoon, so she manages to avoid any questions about why she’s back so early and why she looks like she’s just been thrown into a cage full of tigers. She can finally relax and work on the mix that she’ll hopefully have done by tonight – as if anybody expected anything else from her – before Chloe gets back, because no doubt she has some sort of Christmas Eve tradition up her sleeve that she’ll want the Bellas to take part in.

Luckily, she manages to get the mashup pretty much done by the time she hears Chloe come through the front door singing Here Comes Santa Clause, and it’s only minutes later that she hears the familiar tune of Chloe Beale knocking on her bedroom door.

“How’s your dad?” Chloe asks her immediately, and she thinks that her lying smile is convincing enough, because Chloe doesn’t seem to ask any more questions when she tells her that yeah, her dad is fine.

And it turns out Chloe does have a Christmas Eve tradition she wants the girls to take part in. It doesn’t really surprise Beca that Chloe still leaves out milk and cookies for Santa, despite how she knows for a fact that Santa isn’t real. (“It’s just the thought, ya know?” is what Chloe says when Beca asks why, followed by a smile that almost twists Beca’s stomach inside out.)

Somehow the Bellas all end up sleeping in the living room downstairs, with the soft sound of Chloe’s homemade Christmas CD playing from her laptop. They’re spread out everywhere, with most of them on the floor, Fat Amy on one of the couches, and Jessica and Ashley on the other. Cynthia Rose had managed to catch a flight home last night, but the rest of the Bellas hadn’t had any luck.

Beca can practically taste Chloe’s breath with how close they are.

Not that she’s complaining.

“When are you going home?” Beca asks Chloe. She can’t see her, but she can feel Chloe’s breath on her forehead, and by the sounds of it, she’s still awake.

“I can’t get a flight out until boxing day.”

“Me too.”

“Beca?”

She gulps.

“Yeah?”

“You didn’t visit your dad today, did you?”

“How did you know?”

She feels Chloe let out a small laugh; feels the tickle that her breath leaves on her forehead, and she smiles. She always smiles when she’s near Chloe.

Chloe tells her that she can always tell when she’s lying, and she shouldn’t feel bad because Chloe said she doesn’t mind, but of course she feels bad. She hates lying to Chloe, and she hates it when Chloe finds out that she lied to her.

“So where did you really go?”

“It’s a secret.”

“Beca.”

“I went to Wal-Mart.”

“Why?”

“Secret Santa present.”

“Who do you have?”

“I’m not telling. It’s called Secret Santa for a reason.”

“I have–“

“–Stop!”

Chloe laughs, and Beca can tell she’s about to say something else, but she’s interrupted by Amy telling them both to shut up. So instead, Chloe turns around and pulls Beca’s arm around her, whispering goodnight as she kisses Beca’s hand.

When she wakes up, it’s to the sound of the Bellas giggling at something at the other side of the room.

“We wanted to see how many Cheetos we could balance on Amy before she woke up,” Chloe tells Beca when she asks what’s going on, and only then does Chloe seem to realize exactly what day it is.

She’s tackled by a hug, followed by Chloe yelling Merry Christmas as she jumps up and down, and she doesn’t have it in her to tell her to stop. There’s something about right now, with Chloe squeezing her and yelling about Christmas in her pyjamas, that kind of makes her a little weak.

Maybe a lot.

Maybe it’s just Christmas and she likes to see Chloe happy.

Which reminds her about the gift.

So after getting a shower and changing into something more comfortable – there’s something about sleeping on floors that just makes Beca feel gross – she finds Chloe and tells her that she needs to talk to her.

Which probably isn’t the best choice of words because Chloe immediately starts to worry. Beca can tell by the way she’s biting her nails and trying to act aloof, but it’s not working and it’s kind of scaring Beca.

“You okay, Chlo?”

“What? Yeah. I’m good. You?”

She smiles, because Chloe is just too predictable to get away with trying to act cool.

“You look nervous.”

“I’m fine.”

She smiles again. Then she remembers why she brought Chloe into the hall, and she takes a deep breath as she reaches into her back pocket.

She hands the item to Chloe, watching in amusement as Chloe’s face turns from scared to surprised to confused in a matter of seconds.

“Your car keys? Why’re you giving me your car keys?”

“It’s, uh, a gift. I have you for secret Santa, and–“

“–You’re giving me your car?!”

Beca’s eyes widen. “What?–No! No, I’m… it’s part of your gift. It’s… I’m gonna–I’m taking you somewhere.” she clears her throat, and realizes exactly how dumb she’s being right now. This was a stupid idea. “I thought it’d be nice if we went somewhere today. Just for a while. I have a trunk full of your favorite snacks, and I,” she pulls out her phone and unlocks it, “I made you a mashup too which you can, uh… which you can listen to in the car. I’m sorry, this was the stupidest idea, I’m just–I can totally go buy you something tomorrow–“

Her rambling is interrupted by Chloe pulling her into a hug, and she breathes Chloe in as much as she can because she smells like fresh flowers and cocoa butter, and Chloe has always been her favorite scent.

Chloe tells her that she loves her, which sets her stomach off doing cartwheels again, and she has to swallow the “I love you too” because Chloe is her best friend, and she doesn’t want to ruin Christmas day with her feelings.

They end up spending the day at the lake, despite the cold weather in Georgia, and Beca almost tells Chloe she loves her again, but she stuffs a turkey sandwich in her mouth and makes sure to stay quiet for the next ten minutes in case of any word vomit. Of course, it doesn’t take long for them to start talking again – Chloe gushing over how beautiful Barden looks in the winter, and also how beautiful the turkey sandwiches are. Beca tells Chloe that Barden and the Turkey sandwiches are nowhere near as beautiful as her, and the smile that Chloe gives her is so totally worth the embarrassment she feels due to voicing her feelings out loud.

Chloe listens to the mix that Beca had spent hours on yesterday; a mashup of every song from Justin Bieber and One Direction’s new album – they’re Chloe’s guilty pleasures – and Beca is thanked with a kiss on the cheek and Chloe’s sweet voice singing every part of the song for the next few hours.

They talk about what they’re going to do when they see their families, and what date they’re coming back to Barden – Beca is happy to know that Chloe will be coming back on the same day as her, on New Year’s Eve – and that’s when Chloe chooses to tell Beca that she also got her a present.

“You didn’t have to,” Beca tells her, but it’s Chloe Beale, and if she’s telling the truth, she kind of expected it.

What she didn’t expect was to receive brand new headphones – her headphone wire had broken last week – and they’re the ones she’s wanted for months now, and; “How–how did you know?”

“Let’s just say, be careful with your laptop when Amy is in the room.”

She keeps that in mind; stores it into the part of her brain that remembers all the wonderful things that Chloe has told her.

Things like; “you’re beautiful” or “I’m so glad that I met you.”

And it’s not until they’re back at the Bella house, that Beca starts to feel a little sad that their day is almost coming to an end. Which is stupid because they live in the same damn house, so they can totally continue with their day inside.

But Chloe is walking really slowly to the front door, with her head down looking nervous, and Beca thinks that maybe Chloe doesn’t want it to end either.

“You know, this might be the best gift anyone has ever given me,” Chloe says, breaking the silence.

“Come on.”

“I’m serious,” she laughs, pushing Beca’s arm. She rests her hand on Beca’s forearm instead of pulling back, and Beca tries to focus on Chloe’s smile to keep her breathing in check.

Except focusing on Chloe’s smile is a dumb idea because she’s just stood staring at Chloe’s lips, and it’s giving her the urge to kiss her. Kiss her like she’s the best thing that’s ever happened to her. Kiss her like she wants nothing else in the world but Chloe’s lips on hers.

The scariest part is that all of this is true. It’s real.

And of course, Chloe seems to notice that Beca is staring at her lips, because she says “what?” and Beca doesn’t really know what to do or say.

“What?”

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“I’m… like what?”

Chloe grins, stepping forward a little before resting her back against the door. “Like you want to do something.”

“Do what?”

“I don’t know, you tell me.”

“I don’t want to do anything.”

“Are you sure?”

She gulps, but she doesn’t answer, and she swears she feels her heart hammering in her chest when she feels Chloe pull her closer. That, matched with the five seconds that Chloe spends staring at her lips is enough to make Beca feel lightheaded, so she puts her hands on Chloe’s waist.

You know, just for support.

Only, Chloe doesn’t seem to mind – in fact, she welcomes it with another one of those smiles that makes Beca’s stomach do flips – and Beca is well aware of the sun setting in the distance as the two of them stand here in silence at the front door.

“For God’s sake Beca, just do it already.”

“Do what?”

Chloe sighs, shaking her head as she pulls Beca closer to her again, so that she’s trapped between Beca and the door.

And then she tilts her head, taking another quick glance at Beca’s lips before she closes her eyes.

“You want me to kiss you, right?” Beca asks, and Chloe can’t help but laugh, because of course Beca doesn’t _get_ it. She’s the only person in the world who can’t see exactly how much Chloe is in awe of her.

So instead of answering, she lifts her hands up to the back of Beca’s neck and she pulls her in, and yeah, they’re definitely kissing now. And it happens so fast that Beca almost falls over.

But she uses one hand to steady herself against the door and then wraps the other arm around Chloe’s back, letting herself sink into the softest kiss that she’s ever experience in a long time.

Because Chloe is soft, and she’s wonderful, and she’s unlike anything or anyone that Beca has ever had in her life, and it’s the thought of Chloe being hers that truly scares her and excites her at the same time.

She didn’t move too fast, but she couldn’t deny she wanted more. Wanted to know exactly how far she could go until Chloe eventually came to her senses and stopped it all. Because there was no way that Chloe wanted her the same way that she wants Chloe. No way that this kiss could mean as much to Chloe as it does to her.

“Chlo,” she whispers into her mouth, gasping suddenly when she feels Chloe bite her bottom lip.

“What?”

She breathes out a laugh, placing a few more kisses on her mouth before slowly pulling back.

“What are we doing?”

“Kissing.”

“I know, but… Why? What does it mean?”

“It means we’re kissing.”

She laughs, and she stares at Chloe for a few more seconds, watching as Chloe’s eyes dart back and forth between her own eyes; watching intently as Chloe’s grin turns into a small smile of adoration, and then it clicks.

Maybe this isn’t just kissing for Chloe.

Maybe it was never a ‘just’ thing.

Maybe Chloe has loved her all along.

“I love–“

“–I know,” Chloe smiles, resting her forehead against Beca’s.

“Jeez, you gonna at least let me say it?”

“Sorry.”

She smirks, tilting her head sideways to kiss her again. And Chloe doesn’t miss a beat with deepening the kiss, her hands pulling Beca in deeper by the back of her neck, nails scratching gently across her skin.

Beca gasps into the kiss, suddenly finding herself pushing her hips into Chloe, hands resting on the small of her back as she feels Chloe start to place soft kisses down her neck and then back up towards her ear.

“Please say it,” Chloe whispers when she stops to rest her mouth on the shell of Beca’s ear. “I want to hear you say it.”

“Say what?”

“Becs.”

She grins, moving her head so she can look at Chloe. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she whispers.

Only, there’s something about Chloe’s expression. Something about the way her eyes shine when she looks into her eyes, and something about the way she’s smiling. Not too big but not too small either. It’s a content smile; a smile that Beca hasn’t really seen much on Chloe, apart from the few times that Chloe corners her when she’s drunk, and the time at the retreat when they were laying face-to-face in the tent.

And then it hits her.

It’s Chloe’s ‘I’m in love’ smile.

It’s Beca’s new favorite thing to look at.

“I love you,” she murmurs into the small amount of space between them, bringing a hand up to cup Chloe’s cheek. “You have no idea how long I’ve been wanting to say that.”

“I think I do,” Chloe smiles, nudging Beca’s forehead with her own. “I guess you’re okay.”

“Fuck you.”

Chloe grins.

“I love you too.”

“Hey, Chlo?”

“Yeah?”

“Merry Christmas.”

She can feel Chloe smile, even with her eyes closed, and it does nothing to stop the swarm of butterflies in her stomach.

“Merry Christmas, Becs.”

Maybe Christmas isn’t so bad.


End file.
